Explore the most popular birding trails in Hudson Highlands State Park with hand-curated trail maps and driving directions as well as detailed reviews and photos from hikers, campers and nature lovers like you.

Leave your rings at home... I didn't anticipate how much I would need to use my legs and hands to rock scramble as much as I did. The views were worth the hike. It was very busy with hikers (some blasting bluetooth speakers) so I wouldn't call this a peaceful place, but it is very accessible.

From the parking lot we went right and followed the arrows and white blazes to the yellow to green to blue. The remains of the Cornish estate are at the very end of the trail, about a quarter mile away from the parking lot! But we were happy we hiked up for the views and the time spent alongside the waterfall. We thought we had somehow missed the old mansion! So I thought I’d let anyone else know; it’s at the end of the trail. But do what we did and go right at the trailhead! It’s so worth the views and feeling of accomplishment and the estate is like icing on the cake at the end of the hike! Enjoy!

Awesome awesome hike. Has it all - great river views, an old quarry, rock scrambling, cool forests, streams, a waterfall and ruins. First half of hike is definitely strenuous but once you hit the blue trail it's virtually all downhill. Lots of great places to stop and admire the view. IMO once you get to where the white trail meets the yellow trail it's worth taking the yellow for a few tenths of a mile to see some great money views, then heading back to continue on white. Notch trail is super rocky and marshy in places. Cornish Mansion ruins are pretty cool. All in all a great experience. Only downside for me was some lingering haze, which limited the view down the Hudson. Great parking area. It's also worth popping across the road to explore the two short trails at Little Stony Point. The red trail goes around to a weird little cave, while the green trail takes you up to the top of the rocks for nice views up and down the Hudson.

Harder than expected, especially the steep scramble but downhill as well. We are not big hikers in general and typically stick to scenic walking trails so this was a bit more difficult for our skill level however it’s doable. Kids and dogs were doing it. Would come back for sure!

4/21/18- Fabulous Hike! Climbing Boulders. Beautiful day for a hike, temp was about 60 degrees and Sunny. Great for the Experienced Hiker. Took us just under 2 hours for up and back. Great views!
I HIGHLY Recommend this trail.

The views were beautiful! Did not do the whole loop but stayed on Washburn (white markers). It took about 30-45 minutes to get to a beautiful lookout over the Hudson and Cold Spring. It was a very fun hike and will definitely come back to do the whole loop another day.

Great hike to start off spring hiking. Recommend going earlier to avoid a lot of foot traffic, however even at 9am there were still a lot of people. Also, a ton of dogs on the trail. When you get to the first over look there is a lot of glass. Great hike over all!

We were blessed with 80 degrees weather this Saturday and decided to do this strenuous hike in this wonderful weather. Had heard some news about the trail closing for renovation but it's not and someone was mentioning that it will be closing by the end of this month. Too bad

Update: the trails renovations have been set back and remains open. This is a hard trail do he prepared and please don’t leave any garbage along your hike and enjoy what it has to offer. http://nynjtc.org/news/protecting-north-americas-most-popular-hiking-destination

I would rate this as hard and not moderate. We started counter clockwise (white markers) after parking in the lot. At the top we crossed over to the yellow trail, then red and finally home on blue. There was a big tree down at the end of the blue trail and tons of prickers, but it didn’t dampen the fun! Tons of great water views, babbling creeks and generally a great hike!

Took this trail yesterday, was a little chilly but still beautiful enough out for a hike. Wasn’t very crowded which made it even more enjoyable. Wish I took the advice of going counter clockwise but all in all enjoyed the hike. Got some great shots in as well!

This is a great trail! Went on a beautiful Saturday and while we saw plenty of people, it wasn’t ever too crowded. My dog had a blast. I’d recommend hiking it counter-clockwise. You get all of the elevation out of the way at the start and I much prefer scrambling up over rock than scrambling down personally! Also, it’s only about a mile from the Cold Spring MetroNorth stop.

One bridge (if you can call the ugly steel plates they use bridges) is out 3/4’s of a mile in. The creek isn’t too hard to cross anyway, but it’s due for a few repairs in the first mile.

Trails are well marked, the beginning is a well worn path for about a mile.

There’s a new alternate blaze green detour that takes you between the peaks rather than over them. (They have route maps posted, See pictures) There’s no real path and it’s less travelled, we enjoyed it since a foot injury prevented us from climbing higher anyway.

This route terminated at the turnpike entrance, there are no parking lots or structures nearby. You can follow the road around to reconnect with the Campbell Rd entrance.

Nice relaxing trail, no real challenges but worth it for lovely creek and spooky rock structures and walls.